Chapter 5 - Why Ryan Chose Claire
Claire did not go alone.
She simply allowed whoever sent the message to believe she had.
The address led to a storage facility twenty minutes away.
Daniel contacted police.
Evelyn tracked the financial accounts.
Vale stayed behind with Ashley.
Ryan insisted on coming.
Claire refused.
“You're the subject of the message.”
“Exactly.”
“And I don't know whether I can trust you.”
The words hurt him.
Claire saw that.
She didn't care.
Trust had stopped being something Ryan was entitled to.
At the storage facility, officers remained out of sight.
Claire entered the corridor.
Unit 317 stood open.
Inside sat Margaret.
Alone.
She looked twenty years older.
“Claire.”
“Where's Derek?”
“I don't know.”
“You told me to come alone.”
“I didn't send that message.”
Claire stopped.
Margaret held out her phone.
It had been stolen.
Someone had used her number.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Derek told me to meet him.”
Claire stayed near the door.
Margaret looked at her sling.
For the first time, shame crossed her face.
“I shouldn't have said what I said tonight.”
“No.”
“I was angry.”
“You celebrated what happened to me.”
Margaret lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
Claire waited.
No excuses could fix that.
Margaret understood.
“Ryan didn't know who you were when he met you,” she said.
Claire's heartbeat changed.
“How do you know?”
“Because I arranged for him to attend that charity dinner, but I never told him why.”
Claire stared at her.
“You engineered it.”
“I hoped he'd meet you.”
“Why?”
“Your father ruined me.”
“Your own actions ruined you.”
Margaret flinched.
“Yes.”
That answer surprised Claire.
Margaret continued.
“I spent years blaming Thomas. Then Ryan met you.”
“And you encouraged him.”
“Yes.”
“Did Ryan marry me for money?”
“No.”
“How can I believe you?”
“Because Ryan refused me.”
Margaret opened a storage box.
Inside were old letters.
She handed Claire one.
It was from Ryan.
Mom, stop asking about Claire's inheritance. I love her. If you mention her father's money again, I won't speak to you.
Dated two months before their wedding.
Claire read it twice.
Ryan had loved her.
Maybe some part of him still did.
That made what he had become worse, not better.
Love was not an excuse for cruelty.
“What changed?” Claire asked.
Margaret's eyes filled.
“I did.”
She had spent years whispering.
Family loyalty.
Claire's selfishness.
Thomas's supposed injustice.
Ryan's duty to his mother.
Little resentments repeated until Ryan began treating Claire's boundaries as betrayal.
But Margaret hadn't forced him to hurt Claire.
Claire said so.
“I know,” Margaret whispered.
A sound came from behind the storage unit.
Claire turned.
Derek stepped into view.
He held the missing ledger.
Ashley had been right.
From certain angles, he resembled Ryan.
“Touching,” Derek said.
Margaret stood.
“You lied to me.”
“So did you.”
Derek tossed the ledger onto a table.
“I didn't come here to hurt anyone.”
Claire stayed calm.
“Then why steal the trust?”
“Leverage.”
“For what?”
“Money.”
At least he was direct.
Derek had discovered Margaret's history years earlier.
He had convinced her that Thomas Lawson had hidden millions that rightfully belonged to her.
Then he had used Ashley's struggling business to move funds.
Margaret thought they were recovering an old debt.
Derek knew they were stealing.
“And the $1.8 million?” Claire asked.
“Ryan was desperate to save Ashley.”
“So you encouraged him.”
“I gave him numbers.”
Claire almost laughed.
Every person in this family had been pulling someone else's strings.
Derek looked at her sling.
“Ryan made my job easier.”
Claire's face hardened.
“Don't confuse his actions with yours.”
“I wouldn't.”
Derek reached into his coat.
Claire tensed.
He removed an envelope.
Not a weapon.
“I want immunity.”
“You're negotiating with the wrong person.”
“This proves Margaret initiated the first transfers.”
Margaret stared at him.
“You bastard.”
“And the ledger proves the rest.”
Claire looked toward the entrance.
“You should probably explain that to the police.”
Derek's face changed.
Footsteps approached.
Officers entered.
Derek didn't resist.
As he was taken away, he looked at Claire.
“You still don't understand the trust.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“Ask Vale who the original trustee was.”
Then he was gone.
Margaret sat down.
Claire remained standing.
“Who was it?”
Margaret looked up.
“Ryan.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“My father made Ryan trustee?”
“Before he discovered who Ryan's mother was.”
“Then he changed it.”
“Yes.”
“To me.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
Claire remembered Vale's words.
Thomas changed the controlling trustee.
Vale had never actually said it was Claire.
She had assumed.
“Then who?”
Margaret looked terrified.
“I don't know.”
Claire's phone rang.
Jonathan Vale.
She answered.
“Claire?”
“Yes.”
“We found the original amendment.”
Her pulse accelerated.
“Who controls Hawthorne?”
Silence.
Then Vale said a name Claire hadn't heard since her father's funeral.
A woman who had disappeared immediately afterward.
Claire gripped the phone.
“That isn't possible.”
“It is.”
“Where is she?”
May you like
Vale's next words turned Claire cold.
“She's standing outside your house right now.”
